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Tuesday 2 March 2010 THE COURIER
Ten designers that changed the world > Fashion, 14-15 Life & Style Editors: Larisa Brown, Alex Felton and Ashley Fryer - courier.life@ncl.ac.uk
food & drink Come Dine With Me: knock out or cop out? Katherine Bannon settles for gone off yoghurt and Tesco Value chips as she takes on the Come Dine With Me challenge
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nderstandably, student housing is never goLQJ WR RIIHU WKH À QHVW of dining experiences. Place mats are as rare as Cheryl Cole’s bad hair days and someone is always going to get the chair which leaves their eyes level with the table leg. However, with a quaint wooden ceiling and pretty paper chains draped across (I’d like to be able to say oak) beams it was almost like Riverside Cottage had mated with the Websters’ house in Coronation Street. Almost. At the same time, the pile of recycling was threatening to transform the worn lino into a pathway of empty cereal boxes, and the tower of petit fours pots was tall enough to get on every ride in Alton Towers. She could’ve sorted that out. Yet I suppose the food is the main thing. Immediately upon our en-
trance we were presented with a warm bed of tortilla chips thickly coated in salsa, sour cream and a generous, albeit suspiciously waxy, layer of cheese. 'HÀ QLWHO\ WDVW\ GHÀ QLWHO\ RQH WR get the taste buds going, but also GHÀ QLWHO\ D ELW RI D FRS RII The most trying bit of this task was probably turning the grill on, and the similarly sorry state of the rubbish bin didn’t offer any hiding place for the empty bag of Tesco Value lightly salted chips and equally crude salsa packaging. Yes Kat, of course it was your own recipe. Nonetheless I was ready to give KHU WKH EHQHÀ W RI WKH GRXEW The main course was looking more promising already, as the open-plan dining area allowed me to witness the large pan of spiced chicken lightly simmering on the hob. Opting to continue with the tenuously established Mexican theme, it was
fajita time. A proud Grainger Market whore, Bishop seemed eager to display the fact that all the ingredients were freshly purchased by scattering random chillies and parsley plants in optimum viewing positions throughout the kitchen. It was concentrating on this which perhaps caused her to forget the grate the cheese and hence shove it into my hands with a sharp order to give it ‘some good thrusting’. Meanwhile, having gone overboard on the sour cream in the starter to counterbalance the acidic quality of the salsa she pulled a most assuredly out of date half eaten Greek yoghurt out of the fridge. The wraps, I’m sorry to say, came from a plastic wrapper. Yet this was probably for the best, as even then the result of adapting the microwavable instructions had caused them to seal together into an inch thick
circular loaf. However, they still managed to rival anything I’ve had at The Gate. Succulent pieces of chicken and chunky slices of pepper within taste bud tingling rich tomato-based VDXFH SURYLGHG D SHUIHFW À OOLQJ RQFH we’d managed to carefully separate the wraps. And all with a sprinkle of white cheddar. After a much needed break, Kat VWDUWHG LWFKLQJ WR UHYHDO WKH À QLVK ing touch to a Latin American experience: sticky toffee pudding. Generously served with lashings of extra toffee sauce, and it was at just the right level of moistly warm. 7KH À QDO YHUGLFW" 'HVSLWH D EXPS\ VWDUW WKH IDMLWDV ZHUH À OOLQJ WKH sticky toffee was sticky and the hostess was on form, as always. Making me grate my own cheese though? It’ll have to be an above average yet slightly sitting on the fence seven.
And for dessert: Katherine Bishop’s sticky toffee pudding went down a treat
reviews D. RAWCLIFFE
Osborne Road
Bijoux
Jesmond
City Centre
Osborne Road: the epicentre of student nightlife in the heart of Jesmond. The ‘in-place’ where hundreds of students gather daily for a guaranteed cheap and cheerful booze session. Pre-lash, after-lecture wind-down, trashed night out without the terrifying locals and obscene taxi queues: whatever your agenda, Osborne Road offers it all. First (from my end anyway) we hit Bar Blanc. Happy hour here is ecstatic as it runs from 5-7pm, offering 2for1 cocktails, pints for a pound and even free drinks! I can’t help but get a little bit giddy with anticipation every time I slam that buzzer. With every one of my extremities crossed I hope that I’ll become the most popular housemate after winning a free round for us all. Alternatively, you FRXOG VKDPHOHVVO\ Ă LUW ZLWK WKH ginger barman and bag yourself IRU GULQNV UHJDUGOHVV , Ă€ QG WKDW he’s pretty susceptible to a quick ego boost and beaming smile. Next in the line up we come to Osborne’s, where Mondays play host to a quiz night at 8pm where you can win up to ÂŁ500 and have a great time trying to completely guess the obscure questions asked. Happy hour here is from 5.30 til 7.30 where the same rules apply as Blanc. I’m sure you’ll be pretty far
Upon arrival at Bijoux on Mosely Street, we were unsure as to what to expect. We had been reliably informed WKDW WKH WUHEOHV EDU ZDV LQ LWV Ă€ UVW year of opening and aimed to be the pre-bar for students, particularly on D 7KXUVGD\ ZKHQ WKHLU Ă€ QDO GHVWL nation was Perdu or Ohso. However the words “trebles barâ€? resounded in our heads, conjuring up images of yet another Sinners (even though everyone secretly loves it). We were pleasantly surprised. 7KH Ă€ UVW VKRFN RI WKH HYHQLQJ was the fact that the smell of dried vodka and sweat wasn’t there to greet your nostrils as you enteredrather a spick and span swanky cocktail bar. The decor was very tasteful with velvet curtains cascading down the sides of the walls to compliment the orange swirl-effect on the walls juxtaposed with exposed brick. There are circular booths available to hire for a large party or just for you to sit down and relax with a cocktail. We tried a “Key West Coolerâ€? and an “Amaretto Coolerâ€?, which tasted more expensive than ÂŁ3 and were very drinkable. It seemed that you could either sit down and chat with your friends in
gone by this point and hopefully not out of pocket. Spy bar is the next bar in the strip, where you can gain drinks offers from 5-7 every day and again for half an hour at 9pm between Sunday and Thursday. This place is always buzzing in the summer months as it catches the sun, providing a somewhat Mediterranean setting for an afternoon Bulmer’s or two. This bar is smack in the middle of Osborne Road and so is the perfect meeting place for a few bevvys ZLWK \RXU ROG à DWPDWHV ZKR OLYH RQ the other side of Jesmond. Billabong is one of the classier bars on the strip, attracting sophisticated young workers and the odd lavish student at the beginning of the term. It is a bit more expensive WKDQ WKH RWKHU EDUV EXW , GHÀ QLWHO\ recommend it to anyone who fancies a chilled out catch-up in the comfort of suave leather chairs.
From 8 til 10 every day you can get the cocktail of the week for £3.50: frozen margarita actually tastes like heaven although if you KDYH WRR PDQ\ \RX GHÀ QLWHO\ UXQ the risk of waking up to a massive headache the next day. Finally, we have Berlise, home to the Leazes veterans. I always had a warped view that this place would be the most pretentious bar with a stinking rich air about LW EXW P\ RSLQLRQ ZDV GHÀ QLWHO\ REOLWHUDWHG DIWHU P\ À UVW YLVLW :LWK cosy booths to sit in and a buzzing DWPRVSKHUH WKLV SODFH LV D GHÀ QLWH must for those of you wanting to start the night with a bang, offering cheap drinks between 5.30 and 7.30pm and again at 9.30. It has to be said, Osborne Road GHÀ QLWHO\ QHYHU IDLOV WR GHOLYHU RQ low-cost drinks, great banter and epic nights out. Pamela Mardle
a classy place if you’re on a shoestring budget or get in the ÂŁ1.95 trebles and dance the night away to current releases. Bijoux has the same DJ on a Thursday as Chase does on a Friday night. As we absorbed our surroundings, we couldn’t help but notice the amount of Champagne bottles of all sizes on display. This is a testament to the message that they are trying to convey themselves as a classy trebles bar, hoping to attract students before they go to one of the classier clubs. There are various deals available for entry into surrounding clubs which make it seem a worthwhile visit. Bijoux was described by the hosts for the evening, Harriet and Claire, as a bar for “more discerning people on a student budgetâ€? and we couldn’t agree more. So for your pre-lash, why not try something new? You never know, it may just be what you were looking for. Lauren Girling